Every artist, act and spectacle contains embodied metaphors of the human condition. The trials, weaknesses and successes central to any human life are illuminated in hyper realism before our eyes.

I believe in Circus as the Art of Heroism, fragility being an intrinsic part of any hero.

I believe in Art as a verb, a process of reflection and meaning making, rather than an object, static and separate.

I believe in standing on the shoulders of giants, honouring the traditions out of which contemporary circus is born, and rejoicing in its unimagined future.

‘Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.'

Winston Churchill

photo credit: Sam Oster Silvertrace

Intercultural Connection

Culture is the listening ears and articulating lips we use to make sense of the world, and carve out our place within it.

As connectivity increases in our global village, intercultural understanding and communication is essential to being the strongest form of ourselves. Intrinsic to our disparate cultures are the values that form their central core. The visible and audible differences amongst cultures being the outward manifestations of these core values. With greater experience and understanding comes the acknowledgement that, often, the values that underpin differences of appearance and behaviour, are actually similar or the same.

Photo Credit Steven McManis

Extraordinary Bodies in Extraordinary circumstances

When we witness the Circus artist, she becomes exemplary for her whole public. He becomes a reachable god, a contemporary mythology of flying and superhuman strength that inspires, shocks and provokes. We are simultaneously drawn to and repelled by the circus artist. Attracted by her seduction and charm, and repelled by his potential failure. We recognise our own human-ness in her, our god-like ability to achieve unimaginable feats, and out ultimate mortality, that we too are limited by gravity and time.